1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to display and dispensing racks for use in restaurants, cafeterias, convenience stores, airports, ballparks, shopping malls, road-side stands, or other locations where merchandise is displayed and dispensed. More particularly, this invention relates to a new and improved method of delivering to the front of a rack and displaying stable and even unstable articles in an upright fashion.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, several racks have been developed that display and deliver articles to the front of a rack. One example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,618, is a bottle dispenser with parallel shelves having sloping surfaces. The surfaces downwardly slope from back to front so when an articles is placed on a shelf, the article tends to slide to the front of the bottle dispenser. The articles, when stationary on the rack, tend to tip towards the front of the rack.
Another example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,821, is a merchandise display and dispensing device with parallel shelves having sloping surfaces. The surfaces upwardly slope from back to front so when an article is placed on a shelf, the article tends to slide towards the rear of the rack. The rack has a spring biased pushplate to push the articles to the front of the rack. The articles, when stationary on the rack, rest on the pushplate and tend to tip towards the rear of the rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,279 is an example that of a hot countertop self-service food station with parallel shelves having sets of sloping rails. The rails downwardly slope from back to front so when an articles is placed on a set of rails, the article tends to slide to the front of the food station. The articles, when stationary on the rack, tend to tip towards the front of the rack.
The racks described above do not provide a dispensing device that fully displays the articles, that uses gravity as the force that urges the articles towards the front of the rack, and that can be used with articles that must be displayed at a particular orientation. The racks that have shelves that slope down from back to front which tip the articles forward cannot be used with tall articles having small bases such as soft pretzels, french fry containers, or candy bars standing on end. If these articles were tipped forward, the articles would fall out of the rack. Additionally, these articles cannot be laid on their side because such an orientation would inefficiently store the articles or such an orientation could cause leakage or breakage or the articles.